Martin of Diabetically Speaking recently posted about activism, type 1 diabetes, and the annual Friends for Life Conference at Disney World. While FFL1 took off with a bang and has been growing ever since, many of us gauge the success of our efforts on a similar scale and, finding ourselves falling short, give up.

We forget about the "butterfly effect". One "random act of kindness" to someone, today, will change that person in ways that will make him want to pay that kindness forward to somebody else, at a later date. Or multiple other people, on multiple occasions. Like the Faberge Organics commercials of the 1970's, it will spread and expand into something very large and very life-changing to someone, somewhere down the road. Some of us have had the scary, but satisfying, experience of literally saving someone's life with a spare bottle of insulin, taking on an irate line of people at the beverage counter, or administering glucagon. Others of us have smaller "angel moments", which may revolve around spare lancets, a tube of glucose tabs, or even lending someone a cell phone to call home.

While many religious ethics consider this behavior to be part and parcel of living in the manner required by the Deity or Deities, some consider this to be doing the work of the Deity (or Deities) on Earth. Most of the time, we get no direct feedback that this is the case, nor to we expect any. Sometimes, though, we will feel the weight of Something Larger, a connection to the Collective Consciousness, a becoming One with the Universe, the feeling of the Divine Presence (or Holy Spirit) upon us, and we will know that we have been prepared to fulfill that task, at that time. At other times, we may simply think we've felt the brush of butterfly wings upon our souls. Those moments of clarity, and of senseless beauty, remind us to continue to seek to do good, and that even the smallest kindness can have life-changing repercussions.

Those butterflies have more influence than we can even begin to imagine...

Megan HolmesMegan was diagnosed in 2009 with Type I. As an RN, she was familiar with the medical side of her diagnosis; learning to be a good patient on the other hand, was and continues to be the challenge of her day to day life. (Read More)

Michelle KowalskiMichelle Kowalski, a writer, editor and photography hobbiest living in Phoenix, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in February 2005. In January 2008, as part of her quest to start on an insulin pump, Michelle learned that she actually has type 1 diabetes. (Read More)